Soothing an infant who has been awakened from a sound sleep can be a trying experience. Often the infant's fit becomes more intense when he/she sees his/her mother or father come into the room to check on him/her. Sometimes it may be preferable to soothe the baby without the mother or father coming in contact with the infant. A device which is activated by the sound of a crying child which provides soothing sounds would be desirable.
Several sound-activated devices have been developed for children. These devices are designed to entertain and stimulate a child. Typical of the art are those devices disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,207,696 issued to Hyman et al. on Jun. 17, 1980; 4,637,007 issued to Sakurai on Jan. 13, 1987; and 4,973,286 issued to Davison. The devices disclosed in the '696, '007 and '286 patents disclose various devices which are sound-activated. The devices are intended to stimulate and entertain the child. They are not intended to soothe and relax the infant. Further, these devices can be activated by any noise.
The sound-activated rotary device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,322,718, which issued to Faierstain on Mar. 30, 1982 provides a sound-activated circuit which powers a rotary device like a turntable or record player. The device does not provide a means for overriding the timer such that the playback time is unlimited or variable and determined by the parent as opposed to the device. Further, the sound-activated circuit can be activated by any noise of a sufficient level.
Mechanical lullaby boxes play tunes which are intended to soothe an infant. But the length of the tune is limited, the lullaby box provides only one tune and the length of time the lullaby box can play is limited.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide sound-activated playback device which detects the sound of a child crying.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a sound-activated playback device which, upon detecting the sound of a child crying, plays a soothing recording.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a sound-activated playback device which provides a timer for designating the length of the time the device will play.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a sound-activated playback device provides a means for overriding the timer such that the duration of playback of a recording is not limited by a timer.